Anticathexis

{{Short description|Psychoanalytic concept}} In psychoanalysis, '''anticathexis''', or countercathexis, is the energy used by the ego to bind the primitive impulses of the id.<ref>Otto Fenichel, ''The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis'' (London 1946) p. 42</ref> Sometimes the ego follows the instructions of the superego in doing so; sometimes however it develops a double-countercathexis, so as to block feelings of guilt and anxiety deriving from the superego, as well as id impulses.<ref>Fenichel, p. 132 and p. 479</ref>

==Repression and isolation==

Freud saw the establishment of a permanent anticathexis as a prerequisite for successful psychological repression. He also saw countercathexis as playing a central role in isolation.<ref>Fenichel, p. 155</ref>

In a late work, Freud further distinguished between the external anticathexis of repression and what he called “internal anticathexis" (i.e. alteration of the ego through reaction formation).<ref>Sigmund Freud, ''On Psychopathology'' (PFL 10) p. 318</ref>

==Figure-ground== Anticathexis has also been linked to the phenomenon of figure-ground, in that it may entail the suppression of the margin or ground of a perceptual field.<ref>R. Boothby, ''Freud as Philosopher'' (2001) p. 77</ref>

==See also== {{Columns-list|colwidth=22em| *Acathexis *Body cathexis *Cathexis *Decathexis *Psychological resistance }}

==References==

==Further reading== * J. Laplanche/J.-B. Pontalis, ''The Language of Psychoanalysis'' (2012)

Category:Psychoanalytic terminology Category:Freudian psychology